Criminal Injuries Compensation Research Articles

When ‘ideal victim’ meets ‘criminalised other’: Criminal records and the denial of victimisation

This article critically examines the restrictions on access to statutory compensation in Great Britain for victims of serious crime with criminal records. Drawing on original analysis of Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority transparency data it reveals the scale of the denial of victimisation as a so-called ‘collateral consequence of a criminal record’. The policy is then critiqued on the basis that it reproduces the problematic social construction of the ‘ideal victim’, delineates people with criminal records as subaltern citizens and gives rise to harmful secondary victimisation of applicants whose criminal records are often unrelated to their victimisation event.

State compensation as rape justice: are public attitudes a legitimate foundation for reform of the UK’s Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme?

The British state’s mechanism for compensating victim-survivors of sexual offences has been critiqued as retraumatising. However, a recent review preliminarily rejected calls to loosen the eligibility rules, stating that the current criteria reflect public attitudes. This article outlines the first empirical study of public opinion on the UK Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (CICS), drawing on data from over 2,000 survey participants. The findings show ambivalence among members of the public, but also reveal the current rules are not strongly supported and are in some cases highly unpopular. The article then examines some difficulties with relying on public opinion for criminal justice reform, and ultimately argues that there are stronger justifications for reforming the CICS than popularity with the public. Specifically, loosening the eligibility criteria would create more legitimate policy through the protection of core societal values such as fairness and dignity.

Embodied truths and authentic selves: The constitution of evidence and credibility in rape cases

In this article, I use the concept of chronotope, which means time-space, to analyse knowledge production at the intersection of science, technology and law. I do a comparative study of written legal decisions regarding criminal injuries compensation in rape cases from two different legal institutions in Norway—namely, the Compensation Authority and the criminal courts. In these written decisions, the two institutions state the reasons and justifications for their decisions by invoking, relying on and dismissing various kinds of knowledge, such as forensic, medical and psychological knowledge. The aim of this comparison is to investigate how these reasons and justifications constitute evidence and credibility. I argue that the two institutions attach themselves to different kinds of expert knowledge because they are chronotopically different and consequently constitute evidence and credibility in different ways.

Victim/survivors of crime in the workplace: interactions between workplace injuries and criminal injuries compensation and financial assistance

Bowie identified a typology of workplace violence which features four broad categories: namely, ‘intrusive’, ‘consumer-related’, ‘relationship-related’ and ‘organisational’ violence. Identifying the form of workplace violence provides an insight into the likelihood and nature of workplace violence and consequently informs the potential for legal proceedings against employers or others. This article explores the typology of workplace injuries as proposed by Bowie and considers the relationship between criminal injuries compensation and victim/survivors financial assistance schemes and workplace injuries. In considering this relationship, it also reflects on the gendered nature of some forms of workplace violence.

Victims, Criminal Justice and State Compensation

This article examines one element of the state’s responses to crime: the provision of a taxpayer-funded compensation scheme for victims of personal and sexual violence. The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2012 sits within a political context that seeks to ensure that victims of crime are better served by the criminal justice system of England and Wales, the jurisdiction that is the focus of this article. The government’s fundamental policy is that this scheme exists to compensate only those victims who are ‘blameless’, either in terms of their character, criminal record, conduct at the time of the incident, or in their engagement with the criminal justice agencies. It is a policy that illuminates elements of two of the questions that the editors posed for this Special Issue of Societies. Reviewing the increased urgency in government policies concerning the treatment of victims of crime, the first section addresses the question of how, why and when victims came to shape political and criminal justice discourse and practice. The question of how, and to what end, cultural representations have shaped perceptions of victims is addressed in the second and third sections, which examine the notion of victim status and illustrate the ways in which eligible (‘ideal’) victims are perceived and their claims under this scheme are determined.

Prava žrtava krivičnih dela u Holandiji

U radu je ispitana zaštita prava žrtava krivičnih dela u Holandiji. Cilj istraživanja je da se objasni sveobuhvatnost reformi (od 1980) i izaberu primeri dobre prakse (vezano za usklađivanje sa Direktivom o pravima žrtava 2012/29EU). Stalnim reformama prevaziđena je pasivna uloga žrtve u krivičnom postupku, garantovana su njena posebna prava. Žrtva tako postaje centralna figura krivičnopravnog sistema. Autor ukazuje na osobena rešenja u holandskom pravu – pravo žrtve da se obrati sudu (ukazujući na posledice viktimizacije i drugo), medijacija, institut transactio (odustanak od gonjenja), nalog za naknadu štete, avansno plaćanje naknade štete iz sredstava Centralne agencije za novčane kazne, ako je učinilac ne plati u određenom roku. Opisan je i postupak obeštećenja iz Fonda za naknadu štete za zločine nasilja. Pokazuje se da je od presudne važnosti uspostavljanje delotvornog organizacionog okvira ostvarivanja prava žrtava, primereno potrebama datog društva.

Rights to protection and the state: the Australian Government's National Plan to reduce violence against women and children and victim's justice

ABSTRACTDue to increased awareness and impact of domestic violence, women's safety in the domestic sphere has become a prominent problem in Australian politics. In an analysis of criminal injuries compensation (CIC) processes in WA, this paper highlights a specific aspect of national policy failure in relation to safety for women who have experienced domestic and family violence. It establishes policy impetus to acknowledge a right to protection by the state within the domestic sphere, then discusses the history and relevance of state responsibility/obligations for victims of crime compensation and demonstrates how the failure to comply with the nationally endorsed plan to address domestic violence places some women at risk of further harm. The example of WA's victims of crime compensation processes highlights the high level of female domestic violence victims using the scheme and important intersectional issues pertinent for Indigenous women. The paper points to how a specific failure of policy implementation may be addressed.

Supporting Rape Survivors Through the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme: An Exploration of English and Welsh Independent Sexual Violence Advisors' Experiences.

English and Welsh responses to rape have long been critically examined, leading to attempted improvements in the criminal justice system. Despite this, little attention has been paid to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (CICS) and the difficulties applying it to rape. To begin addressing this gap, researchers interviewed three, and qualitatively surveyed 22, Independent Sexual Violence Advisors. The findings suggest that CICS may not only reinforce rape myths and disadvantage vulnerable survivors, but is also a source of validation and contributes to survivor justice. The study, while exploratory, therefore, highlights the need for further discussion about rape survivor compensation.

Assault in the workplace: what action you should take

Author Phil Kyte, National co-ordinator for civil assault and CICA claims, Thompsons Solicitors Workplace assaults are a major problem for many staff working in health care, and across the NHS the number of reported assaults against staff are on the rise. In 2012–13 there were 63 199 reported assaults, and in 2013–14 this rose by 8.7% to 68 683 (NHS Protect, 2014a). Since 2011–12, assaults have increased by 14.5% (NHS Protect, 2014b). There are significant concerns that a combination of cutbacks and rising demand will only make matters worse. The government expected the NHS to make £20 billion worth of cuts by 2015 and since 2010, over 7000 clinical staff have been made redundant (Campbell, 2013). A reduced, less experienced workforce and less managerial oversight could potentially lead to vulnerable patients not receiving the care they need and supervisors finding it difficult to maintain vital health and safety regulations designed to keep both patients and staff safe. With an ageing population and consequently an increasing number of patients with long-term neurological conditions such as dementia, the problem is only compounded. What law applies if you are assaulted? At work, your employers are responsible for your health and safety. They have duties under Acts such as the Health and Safety at Work Act and they must comply with regulations such as the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations which require them to carry out risk assessments and keep practices under review. Employers should have adequate systems and sufficient staff to ensure that you are not put at risk. Not all accidents can be predicted, but often they are both foreseeable and avoidable. If you are concerned about a practice being unsafe or a procedure being dangerously understaffed, or if you are missing vital equipment, it is important to make a report in writing. That way if there is an accident later, your employers cannot claim they did not know, unfortunately it is not uncommon after an incident for verbal reports to be ‘forgotten’. If you are a victim of an assault at work and are injured you should record it in your employer’s accident book. That note may become very important later either for yourself or others as evidence that the employer was aware that the incident happened. There are two main avenues for getting compensation for your injuries: a civil claim against an employer and/or an application through a governmentfunded scheme administered by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA).

Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD)—diagnosis and moral policing; an ethical dilemma for paediatricians

We certainly live in interesting times; advertisements in the media and even in emergency departments enjoin those who have suffered injury to claim legal compensation from those who have wronged...

Compensating deserving victims of violent crime: the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2012

Following the enactment of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Act 1995, a new Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme came into force, replacing the non-statutory version that was introduced in 1964. The statutory Scheme retained the occasions for compensation but broke the link with common law damages, providing instead for payments to be made on the basis of a tariff of injury awards. But it continued to make payments for loss of earnings, special expenses and additional compensation in fatal cases. Minor revisions were made in 2001 and 2008, but following the government's consultation, ‘Getting it Right for Victims and Witnesses’, a major revision took effect in November 2012. Made largely to reduce public expenditure, this revision substantially limits both the numbers of victims of violent crime to be compensated and the levels of their awards. While this marks a further shift away from the original common law model, the 2012 Scheme remains a unique taxpayer-funded response to victims of violent crime, again prompting the question: why, and to what, extent should the state make financial provision for victims of violent crime that goes beyond welfare? This paper analyses the implications of the government's answer for the Scheme's scope and implementation.

The criminal injuries compensation scheme

PurposeThis paper seeks to provide an analysis of historic and current criminal injuries compensation schemes in Great Britain.Design/methodology/approachThe paper aims to explain the nature of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) that administers the present scheme and to identify the qualifying criteria to establish eligibility for awards of compensation and obstacles to success. It deals with the nature and amounts of the awards available, the evidence gathering process, causes of delay and impediments to the achievement of fair outcomes. In the context of cases of serious injury, including acquired brain injury, it examines specific problems that are likely to be encountered and a perceived inadequacy of the compensation available to victims of such injury. The paper considers the involvement of the National Health Service in cases where applications for compensation are made and the possibility that medical professionals might inadvertently hinder the chances of a fair award. The position of local authorities and social services departments is also addressed, as is the danger that proper claims for injured victims might not be identified.FindingsFrom the point of view of the victim of crime who is faced with making an application to CICA, the problems that they face lie with the process, the possibility of being refused on technical grounds, limits on compensation, gaps in the scheme – which might leave victims or their relatives going uncompensated or under‐compensated, and finally the lack of financial support with the cost of representation where it is needed. Of equal concern is the fact that the description of the circumstances of the assault and the injuries suffered can be crucial to ensure that full, proper, and relevant evidence gathering is undertaken. Without suitable skills, it is very easy for the lay applicant inadvertently to mislead, or to give the CICA the opportunity to reject or under‐compensate.Originality/valueThis paper provides a detailed analysis of CICA and reflects upon what the future might hold for injured victims of crime.

Private Prosecution and the Victim of Crime

In their duty to keep the peace, criminal prosecutions are usually initiated by the Police or Crown. However, for most of English and Australian legal history, the duty to initiate criminal proceedings through to trial rested with the victim of crime. It was only after the establishment of a Metropolitan Police Force in England and, in particular, the rise of public prosecuting authorities in the form of an Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) that the duty of the victim to initiate and carry out a prosecution substantially declined. Preceding these comparatively recent developments, however, we find the common law power of the individual to inform a court of an offense and undertake a prosecution as a fundamental liberty or right. Supported by a number of recent high profile private prosecutions, this history suggests that although the power of the victim to prosecute is largely limited in accordance with the statutory discretion of the ODPP to undertake all criminal proceedings, the power of private prosecution remains. This article maps the common law power of the victim's right to prosecute, limitations on this power, and the rudiments of this power as it survives today. This article argues that, although sparingly exercised, the common law power of the victim to prosecute remains largely unchanged. Further, the degradation of victim prosecutorial power also explains the significant rise in defendant rights in the nineteenth century, and the tendency to now support victim interests away from the criminal courts through criminal injuries compensation and victim assistance. This article concludes that despite statutory and procedural limitations to the contrary, the victim's right to prosecute is a fundamental legal right that is in fact supportive of various developments in public prosecution as it functions today.

Victims of violence told to call police immediately after incident

Nurses who are attacked at work have been warned to go straight to the police, as any delay could jeopardise their claim for compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA).

Infection control: the rights of the patient

This article considers the possibility of a patient suing an NHS trust for compensation for harm which has been suffered as a consequence of a hospital acquired infection and the elements which the claimant would have to prove. The patient's rights to criminal injury compensation are also discussed.

On Being Insane in Medico-Legal Places: The Importance of Taking a Complete History in Forensic Mental Health Assessment

Rosenhan's experiment (1973) showed that it is not difficult to simulate symptoms of psychiatric illness. A Parliamentary Committee in New South Wales and research from overseas have shown that, in the medicolegal context, such practices continue to exist. To illustrate the argument, there will be a discussion of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It is argued that such practices not only bring the area of mental health into disrepute, they also have the effect of distorting negatively the outcomes of litigation and raise ethical questions about the misuse of mental illness for personal benefit. It remains the case that expert mental health practitioners have an ethical duty to educate both the practitioners who employ them and the courts in general as to the reality of what constitutes mental illness. They can begin this action by taking thorough histories from plaintiffs. The term 'mental injury' or variations thereon, used in most criminal injuries compensation legislation, provides an opportunity to appreciate that being a victim of crime is often likely to result in distress that is more than transient and hence compensable, but not necessarily something that has to become pathological. That does not mean that some people will not develop psychopathology or have pre-existing psychopathology exacerbated. To adopt such an approach for personal injury matters in general may resolve some of the tensions experienced by mental health practitioners when they enter the forensic arena.

Supporting a Person with Learning Disabilities for Criminal Injuries Compensation

Despite growing awareness of abuse of people with learning disabilities and prospective legal improvements, it is still uncommon for people with learning disabilities to obtain justice for experiences of abuse. It has been recognised that recent legislation pertaining to the Sexual Offences Act, as well as the Mental Health Act, has been little used and has not provided effective protection for people with learning disabilities, especially if abuse is perpetrated by another person with learning disabilities. This can leave the abused person feeling, among other things, disempowered and silenced, which can be compounded if they are believed by professionals and others and still no justice is evident. This paper is an account of supporting a man with learning disabilities, both therapeutically and legally, to obtain recognition of his experience of sexual abuse by using the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) as an alternative to the criminal justice system.

Shaken Baby Syndrome: compensating the victims.

This article explores the topic of Shaken Baby Syndrome and the consequences for surviving children and those that care for them. The impact of both the civil law and the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme in Great Britain are considered. The article addresses perceived inadequacies in the multi-disciplinary approach to dealing with compensation in such cases and in the compensation systems themselves.

Criminal injuries compensation for abused children.

An introduction to the topic of compensation for children who have been physically or psychologically abused Discretionary schemes to compensate the victims of violent crime have been in place in Great Britain since 1964. The original framework provided that compensation would be awarded on a “common law basis” whereby awards were assessed in exactly the same way as if being made by a court—that is, adhering to principles of restitution, seeking to put the victim back, so far as possible, into the same position that they would have enjoyed had the crime and the injury not occurred. Apart from compensation for the actual injuries, awards would therefore also include full and future care costs, provision of therapies, equipment, transport needs, special accommodation, loss of earnings, and future earnings. There was no limit on an award and each case would be assessed on its individual merits. In 1996, a statutory scheme (the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 1996) was introduced under the provisions of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Act 1995 to replace the earlier discretionary ones, with awards for pain and suffering to be made on a tariff basis with a limit of £250 000 for catastrophic injury and an overall limit of £500 000 in total, inclusive of care needs, loss of earnings, etc. The scheme was revised slightly in 2001, and is now administered by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA). Compensation may be paid to an applicant who has sustained a criminal injury after 1 August 1964. If the victim has since died, payment can be made to a qualifying dependant claimant. A criminal injury is defined as a personal injury directly attributable to a crime of violence. Personal injury includes physical (incorporating fatal) injury, mental injury (being a temporary mental anxiety, medically verified, or a disabling mental illness …

Predictors and severity of injury in assaults with barglasses and bottles

Background: Although glasses and bottles are frequently used as weapons in assaults, there is little knowledge on which prevention strategies can be based. Design: Scrutiny of a random sample of...